Virtual Reality in Second Life and OpenSim using the CtrlAltStudio Viewer

David Rowe’s CtrlAltStudio Viewer allows 3D stereoscopic and Oculus Rift Head Mounted Display (HMD) viewers of Second Life and OpenSim-based Virtual Worlds. It supports gamepad controllers too, such as the Xbox gamepad. Version 1.2.5.43397 (3rd October 2015) had been updated to the Oculus SDK 0.6 to allow it to run with the latest SDK 0.7-based drivers. It also has a simplified and improved operation for 3D view (enter with the “3D” button or “ctrl+alt=3”) to allow direct to rift operations rather than the previous extended desktop mode. “Esc” returns to 3D mode (e.g. to interact with the viewer menus if necessary). The Oculus Rift “dual barrel” view can be mirrored to the main 2D screen (an option under Preferences -> Graphics -> Display Output), which is good for screen shot saving, such as for those shown below. The VR/3D view can be reset or recentered to te avatar position and direction using “ctrl+spacebar” if necessary… but it seems to be aligned very well without using that in my testing. A 3D space visible cursor for the mouse seems to work very well and makes interaction with objects, screens and so on while in the VR/3D view much easier than before.